486 



ORIGIN AND DISTEIBUTION OF MAN 



[Ch. XLIII. 



anim 



to classify the 



organ, or one set of characters, has failed, and that in order 



creation by reference to a sino-le 



to obtain 



stem of arrangement, we must 



consider the combined claims of as large a part as possible of 



the whole organisation. 



Nevertheles 



cerebral conformation, taken by itself, has enabled Professor 

 Owen to place the genera and orders of mammalia in an 

 ascending scale, shows how predominant is the importance of 

 the brain, and the intimate connection of this mysterious 

 organ with mental power. 



followed by the 

 dissimilar in canj 



:-mole) 

 marsni 



We see the monotremes (the 



all having brains the most 



measnr 



standard, the family to which the chimpanzee and gorilla 

 belong being at the head of the long list of tabulated genera 

 and orders. It will also be observed that the bats, instead 

 of maintaining the leading position among the ' Primates ' 

 which they occupied in the Linnsean classification, are as- 



a diiferent and inferior sub-class, far 



signed to 



accordance with their relative intellio'ence. 



more rn 



mammalia 



con- 



fish, or the lowest class of the vertebrata, we find a 

 tinnance of the same descending scale in accordance with a 

 diminntion in the volnme of brain, as well as in a lessened 

 concentration of the nervous system in one part of the 

 animal ; for the farther w^e recede from the human type, the 

 smaller is the proportionate quantity and weight of the 

 brain as compared to the spinal marrow. It is true that in 

 iittempting to apply these rules in detail the anatomist is 

 ■often at fault, because he finds that in any given group of 

 animals the larger species have proportionately smaller 

 brains, or, in other words, the mass of the brain does not 

 increase in the same ratio as the general bulk of the animal. 

 Still the general proposition before laid down holds good, 

 that the degree of intelligence and mental power enjoyed by 

 the inferior animals increases with the increase of their 

 cerebral capacity, and with the resemblance in the structure 

 of their brain to that of maji. 



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